Fight Aging!

Kevin Perrott pointed out a LiveScience poll on the top science stories of 2005; the entry "Toward Immortality" might just be of interest to readers here.

"I think it's reasonable to suppose that one could oscillate between being biologically 20 and biologically 25 indefinitely." That's what eccentric researcher Aubrey de Gray, who thinks aging can be cured, told LiveScience in an interview this year. De Grey also runs the Methuselah Mouse prize for breakthroughs in extending the lives of mice, which researchers hope will spill over into progress to slow human aging. The purse of the M Prize, as it is called, grew beyond $1 million in 2005. As for hard science, one study showed that the buildup of mutated DNA triggers aging in mice. Another found stimulation of a certain gene in mice seems to delay bone weakening, artery clogging and loss of muscle fitness. Modern medicine is already allowing life expectancy to creep up, and it hit an all-time high in America this year. Ray Kurzweil, a computer scientist and writer, explained that his plan to live forever involves not tailgating, but taking 250 supplements and drinking lots of alkaline water and green tea.

About par for the course for a mainstream media commentary on healthy life extension research; quotes and factoids either wrong or out of context, casual slurs, and so forth. I would have expected better from a venture that is at least attempting to pass as a popular science site. Still, there it is in the top 10 list, a concrete sign that progress is being made in public awareness of serious anti-aging and longevity research. So get thee hence and vote it up a couple of notches - let's make the most of it while it's there.

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